Angola

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 25 June 2019

Summary: Signatory Angola has spent the past decade pledging to ratify the convention, but the government still has not introduced ratification for parliamentary consideration and approval. Angola has participated in all the convention’s meetings. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on cluster munitions in December 2018.

Angola disclosed in September 2017 that it does not possess any stocks of cluster munitions and commented on past use. Angola is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Angola signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

Angolan representatives have promised the country’s ratification to the convention over the past decade, but the government still has not referred the convention to parliament for consideration and approval.[1] Most recently, in September 2017, Angola informed the convention’s Seventh Meeting of States Parties that the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and National Mine Action Authority (CNIDAH) would make a strong case for the Council of Ministries to approve ratification of the convention during 2018.[2]

Existing legislation, such as Angola’s Penal Code and constitution, enforce its implementation of the convention’s provisions. In September 2017, Angola said it views existing laws and regulations as “sufficient to charge, prosecute and punish any national or foreign citizen who in the Angolan Territory develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone directly or indirectly, assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited under the Convention of Cluster Munitions.”[3]

Any state may provide an Article 7 transparency measures report detailing the actions they are taking to implement and adhere to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Angola has committed to provide a voluntary report as proof of its “good will and progress” and in September 2017 shared summary findings from its draft report covering the period from 2009 to 2016.[4]

Angola participated extensively in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, but signed the convention in Oslo in December 2008.[5]

Angola has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. It has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016, where it endorsed a commitment to ratify the convention.[6]

In December 2018, Angola voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[7]

Angola is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Angola is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

Angola informed States Parties in September 2017 that it does not possess any cluster munitions as its stockpile was destroyed by 2012 and said that disposal teams from the Angolan armed forces and HALO Trust destroyed a total of 7,284 submunitions from stocks in 2005–2012.[8] In the statement, Angola said that the highest ranks of its army and Ministry of Defense have confirmed Angola no longer stockpiles cluster munitions.

Angola must still provide a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm that all its cluster munition stocks have been identified and destroyed.

Use

Deminers in Angola have cleared unexploded submunitions and other remnants of air-delivered cluster munitions from at least eight of the country’s 18 provinces, most in the south and southeast of the country.[9] However, a lack of firm evidence means it is not possible to conclusively attribute exact responsibility for the past use of cluster munitions in the country during fighting between the government of Angola’s armed forces and rebel UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) forces from 1975 until as late as the year 2000.

Angola told States Parties in September 2017 about the past history of cluster munition use while cautioning that the information was “very limited.” It said that cluster munitions were used after the country became independent in November 1975 and “the racist regime in South Africa with heavy air force and artillery decided to carried [sic] out a series of attacks to the southern and southeastern provinces of Angola to prevent the independence, with the excuses of following the freedom fighter of SWAPO and ANC [independence movements for Namibia and South Africa respectively] inside Angola and also to stop the government forces attacking the rebels movement UNITA supported by USA.”[10]

According to the statement, Angola said it rapidly “became a cold war battlefield, with the Angolan government forces supported also by Soviet Union and Cuba.” It said:

The war planes from South Africa Air Force were used on a daily base [sic] to strike government forces, SWAPO and ANC positions and other areas of the country indiscriminately. In that period, the Angolan Air Force also attacked UNITA positions to retaliate their extemporaneous ground attacks. This was the time when Clusters Munitions were used in Angola.

The types of cluster munitions cleared by deminers in Angola include Soviet-made RBK 250-275 cluster bombs.[11] In 2016, HALO Trust cleared two Alpha submunitions during survey operations in Cunene province along with the remnants of CB470 cluster bombs. In September 2017, Angola said the Alpha bomblet was developed in Rhodesia in 1970 and later in South Africa in the 1980s.[12]

[1] In June 2016, representatives from Angola’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense said the ratification process was at a “very advanced stage.” See, Michael P. Moore, “It’s time for Angola to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Opinion piece, Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) website, based on meeting between Michael P. Moore, Researcher for the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, and representatives from Angola’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense, Angola, June 2016. In August 2016, Angolan officials predicted that the ratification process would be completed within two months. ICBL-CMC meeting with Fernando Pedro Marques, Third Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Angola, in Addis Ababa, 4–5 August 2016.

[2]Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[8] Previously, in 2010, an official said that Angola’s armed forces no longer possess cluster munition stocks following a project by the government and HALO Trust to destroy the stockpile. CMC meetings with Maria Madalena Neto, Victim Assistance Coordinator, CNIDAH, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 7–9 June 2010. Notes by the CMC/Human Rights Watch.

[9] In September 2017, Angola stated that eight provinces are suspected to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants: Bengo, Bié, Cunene, Huambo, Huila, Kuando Kubango, Kuanza Sul, and Moxico. Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017. According to a demining official, cluster munitions have been cleared from Huambo province near Caala and Bailundo. Interview with Jorge Repouso Leonel Maria, Liaison Officer, CNIDAH, Huambo, 21 April 2010.

[10]Statement of Angola, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.